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By Ray Hickson

A throw at the stumps that almost got him into the Provincial-Midway Championships Final told Kerry Parker that lightly raced gelding Flying Bandit has returned in good order so now he heads to Hawkesbury on Wednesday on a mission to learn more about him.

Trainer Kerry Parker (Pic: Steve Hart)

The four-year-old is clearly a horse Parker has plenty of time for but he says he hasn’t quite uncovered what his pet distance will ultimately be.

After that slashing third over 1400m when resuming at Kembla Grange last month, Flying Bandit steps up in distance in the St John’s Park Bowling Club Handicap (1800m).

“The goal is to work out what his distance will be to give us something to aim for in the spring,’’ Parker said.

“I’m not sure exactly where he fits in. We’ve got to work on that benchmark and work on him.

“I’m not sure if he’s going to be a mile-2000m (horse) off a good tempo or if he’s going to be a genuine stayer.”

Flying Bandit, $5.50 with TAB on Tuesday, has won four of his nine starts and showed a glimpse of his potential winning over 2000m at Hawkesbury and over 1800m in a Midway at Randwick in the spring.

Parker said he was prepared to keep the gelding at 1400m if he happened to qualify for the Provincial-Midway Championships Final but his close third told him there’s a good chance he’s gone up a notch.

“It was always a starting point for him, it was a perfect race for him to start his prep in,’’ he said.

“If he qualified then he qualified. You get a $150,000 race on your doorstep and he got into it well at the weights. If he did qualify then three weeks into the final was perfect.

“He just got baulked a couple of times at the top of the straight looking for clear running.

“The instructions were to get to the outside and give him clear air knowing if he was a chance of winning it was going to be the last few strides.”

Jay Ford, who rode Flying Bandit to his Randwick win, is on board at Hawkesbury and Parker said he can only hope the race is run genuinely as an inside gate doesn’t really suit.

“He’s raced well at Hawkesbury, he’s won there over the 2000m,’’ he said.

“All in all he’s heading down the right line. You need that luck with him because he always gets back in his races, barrier two I don’t know if it’s ideal, he’s not blessed with a lot of gate speed.”

The Kembla Grange trainer will be represented in the $1 million Polytrack Provincial-Midway Championships Final (1400m) at Randwick on Saturday with Well Timed but he’s coming off a 25 length defeat from his second up run last week.

Well Timed booked his place by running second in a Hawkesbury Qualifier but Parker said he clearly didn’t appreciate the track conditions, despite being a wet track winner, and is prepared to forget it.

Flying Bandit runs third at Kembla Grange on March 22

“He’s as good as gold, he just bogged down. He was in the last race of the carnival on a gluey track and he never got any traction,’’ he said.

“He’s a lot bigger and stronger, heavier horse, now and I think he just got bogged down. When Nash sat up on him the switch went and that’s where he 25 lengths came from.

“What I see at home gives me every reason to think I’ve got to put that in the forgive file, pretend it didn’t happen, and push on to the Final.”

All the fields, form and replays for Wednesday’s Hawkesbury meeting